MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OE 
320 
where the exact range was known, an enemy's battery ought to be soon 
disabled. Smooth-bored guns could not long oppose such a fire. 
(8) Targets to represent bodies of troops . 
A long course of experiments was made to test the effects of segment and 
shrapnel shells in this manner. The targets, 9 feet high and 54 feet lofig, 
were placed in one or more rows according as they represented troops in line 
or in column. The shells were fired at ranges of 600, 800, and 1300 yards, 
arrangements being made to burst them in positions as nearly similar to 
one another as possible, so as to eliminate the irregularity arising from the 
action of the fuze, and other casual sources of difference. They were 
also tried as substitutes for case shot at ranges varying from 50 up to 
450 yards. 
The exact details are too complicated to be inserted at length; the general 
conclusions of the Committee are as follow :— 
In firing against troops in line, if the shells explode only 10 yards in front 
the fragments are concentrated more than is desirable. If they explode at 
25 yards in front the distribution is better, and was found about equal from 
each kind of gun. "When burst at 50 and 100 yards the shrapnel shell had 
a marked superiority, owing to the bullets maintaining their velocity and 
direction better than the angular segments. 
In firing at columns of troops the shrapnel is much more formidable than 
the segment shell, owing also to the qualities just mentioned.* It was found 
however far inferior to the segment shell, both as to the distribution of 
fragments and the number of hits when they were burst by grazing on the 
sands, under the ordinary application of the percussion fuze. 
The Committee observe, relative to this description of fire, that all the 
shells proved to have a comparatively small effect when burst by a graze 50 
or 60 yards in front of troops; from which it follows that a good time fuze 
is of much importance, They recommend that it should always be used in 
combination with the percussion fuze. 
On reviewing the whole of the practice with segment and shrapnel shell, 
they are of opinion that the latter is the more formidable of the two.f 
The effects produced at short ranges by the shells used as a substitute for 
Case shot were not very great, and as the time necessary to adjust the fuze 
would render them of comparatively little value in checking a rapid advance, 
the Committee think it absolutely necessary for field guns to be supplied with 
common case. 
They tried accordingly two kinds of case shot; one proposed by Lieut. 
Ueeves, R.A. for Sir William Armstrong's guns, and one proposed by Mr 
Whitworth for his own guns. They report that the latter possesses a marked 
superiority, and that it is an invention of great value to the service. J 
It is evident that in firing against such irregular and scattered marks as 
field guns, dummy detachments, and other ordinary objects of artillery 
practice in the field, the number of hits must be a good deal dependent on 
* Report, p. 37. f Ibid. p. 38. 
$ Report, p. 36. No description is given of this ease shot in the blue book, or, if it is, I have been 
unable to find it. 
